The Secret of Successful Blogging
Jul 20th, 2008 | By Bock | Category: internetYou know, some posts just never seem to die.
I didn’t realise this when I started out, but I do now, and I’m a bit better at it than I used to be. I kind of stumbled across the technique, by accident, and to be truthful with you I’m not really all that much better at it. I just got luckier.
The Fritzl thing was huge, even though I didn’t know it was going to be. It just caught the zeitgeist at the right moment. It was the same with the Madeleine McCann story. I had no intention of making a stir. I was just outraged by the behaviour of the hypocritical media. I tried to call them a crowd of bastards and people seemed to connect with what I was feeling. Traffic went crazy.
Leonard Cohen not only won me an award, but increased the visitor numbers even more, which was gratifying. People all over the world are reading this review, as Lenny’s concerts come up in their cities. I have to admit I was hoping that would happen, unlike the previous two stories, but the one I’ve got most fun out of so far is the ridiculous PC World saga which just never seems to end. What a great joke. I love it.
The candidate for weirdest of all successful posts has to be Animal Sex Horse Fuck Gay Horse Sex, a post I wrote for fun one night after I came home late and fell through the door drunk. This post has swept the world. If I look at my map and if there are little markers in Turkey or Saudi Arabia, there’s a good fifty-fifty bet that the readers in those countries will be looking at Animal Sex Horse Fuck Gay Horse Sex. Why people in those regions should be so interested in such matters is a mystery to me, but here’s something even weirder: lately, the post has started to sweep the planet.
Why?
Who knows? Somebody must have mentioned it in some gigantic pervy world-blog aggregator. It’s a mighty strange thing to see hundreds of searches for horse sex, and gay horse sex. Gay? That worries me: there’s somebody reading this site who prefers gay horse sex to heterosexual horse sex.
What the fuck can it all possibly mean?
I don’t know, all right? I don’t fucking know. I was drunk.
Would you like to know a story I truly hate writing about?
Very well. It’s the story of AJ Hanlon’s killing. It’s the story of a young man brutally executed by an Oregon policeman for no good reason.
I guarantee you one thing: the AJ story will not go away until we get to the truth of what was done in Silverton. Unlike in the past, the local officials in Oregon will not succeed in covering up a killing.
Stories like Andrew Hanlon’s killing are the reason I keep doing this ridiculous thing. Much to my surprise, I find I can actually make a difference.
Fair play Bock, it’s a rare gift you have. I hope what you’re doing is recognised as yet one more voice willing to be heard saying “this is wrong”. You do make a difference, whether it’s educating, amusing or offering the different point of view, I’m for one always glad I stopped by.
Keep it up sir, my day would not be complete without a visit to Bockland!
We can’t all use words as well as you,sir. This “thing”that you do is far from Ridiculous.
Keep going Bock.
Fucking Dogs Again is my big resounding hit, with a similar geography to your Gay Horses.
You seriously think you’re making a difference with a blog?
How so?
Because, in all fairness, I’m pretty sure that there was going to be an investigation there anyway, what with the Irish government, the Hanlon family, and Oregon locals all demanding one, not to mention the copper involved being up on charges for child abuse.
I’m intrigued to know if there is indeed a power, a potency, to blogging that thus far I’ve failed to comprehend. I genuinely am. After all, it would be lovely to think that blogging did, in some way, affect changes beyond the very irrelevant.
So hence my question – what difference did you make?
No. You’re right of course.
It makes no difference. Nothing does.
Obviously some things do make differences, Bock, depending on circumstances.
I’m just wondering what it is about blogging that you believe can make a difference.
You said you found you could make a difference. That’s a wonderful thing to achieve with a simple blog, if true, and I’m genuinely curious to know what you think that difference is.
I’ve managed to help one or two people. To me, that’s making a difference.
It’s just that you wrote:
“Stories like Andrew Hanlon’s killing are the reason I keep doing this ridiculous thing. Much to my surprise, I find I can actually make a difference.”
So I’m wondering, who did you help in relation to the Andrew Hanlon killing? What difference do you believe you have made?
This is starting to sound like another of your interrogations.
Drop it.
I’m merely asking you to clarify what is a very big boast that you’ve made. It makes no sense to me and I’m curious as to what you mean by it.
Are you assuming some responsibility for the fact that an investigation is occurring?
Do you believe you have provided succour to the Hanlon family?
What difference do you think you’ve made, Bock, seriously?
Mr Skinner, are you aware how close you are to trolling? I asked you twice to drop it and you don’t seem able to respect that.
I would have thought a man of your intelligence would be able to understand why I refuse to go down that road for you.
Do you really want me to spell it out? I’d prefer not to unless you insist.
I have absolutely no idea why you would not be prepared to explain something you have written and published on the internet.
So please do spell it out for me.
You’ve claimed you’re making a difference. To me that sounds preposterous and arrogant in the extreme, but I may be picking you up incorrectly.
Which is why I’ve asked you to explain what you mean by what you wrote.
I mean, you wrote it, so presumably you know what you meant?
It’s very simple. Tthe details you’re demanding are none of your business.
This is desperately reminiscent of when you claimed you’d read the Lisbon Treaty, but were unable to provide anything to back up your assertion, Bock.
Let me suggest something to you that perhaps your ego will not find palatable, but which is nevertheless the only logical conclusion of what you’re saying:
You didn’t read the Lisbon Treaty but blustered that you did rather than acknowledge the reality that it was way too long and legalistic for anyone except those who absolutely had to (like me) to read.
Similarly, the shadowy ‘details’ of how you’ve helped people and made a difference in relation to the death of Andrew Hanlon don’t actually exist.
I’m more familiar with the Hanlon case than you might possibly imagine, which is why I find your language perplexing in this post.
It would have been easier on both occasions for you to simply reword what you’d asserted, but apparently ego prevails.
Oh dear. That’s embarrassing.
Did you really mean to mention the Lisbon Treaty or was it just a slip?
There seems to be a lot of unresolved resentment in that outburst. It looks as if you harboured a good amount of rage from what the rest of us thought was just a political discussion.
Why does all this infuriate you so much?
Considering your need for conflict, I thought you’d have found enough people to fight with in your recent post, but obviously I was wong.
I certainly meant to mention Lisbon, because it was the first time I encountered your propensity to spoof out of self-aggrandisement, which appears to be prominent in this post too.
Nice try at ducking the issue though.
So Bock, tell us, who relating to the Hanlon case have you helped with your blog and what difference do you believe you’ve made?
You made that claim not me. I’m simply asking you to substantiate it.
Because I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be like that ‘hypocritical media’ you’re always banging on about, making claims with no substantiation in fact, would you?
To JC Skinner. I don’t know what your real problem is here but you have mentioned the AJ Hanlon case a number of times now in relation to your gripe with Bock.
You ask how Bock has helped with the Hanlon case, well I can answer that. When this shocking event happened over 3 weeks ago many of AJ’s freinds and extended family, who were spread all over the world, needed somewhere to express their sadness and anger, somewhere to find out what actually happened and somewhere – a common place where we could let each other know that we cared and that we were available to help if needed. Many of us has lost contact with AJ’s family over the years for one reason or another, the family having spread to different parts of the world. This blog is the one place that brought us together. We have now all met, we’ve talked, we’ve cried and we’ve supported the Hanlons. You have no idea how much Dorothea, Justin and the Hanlon children have appreciated the comments posted here. We know his blog has been assessed by many SIlverton residents and officails involved in the case over the past weeks. Many comments posted here have been taken and quoted in the Oregon media during this time. It gave us the opportunity to let many people know that there was a ‘fight for justice’ for Andrew beginning, no matter what the outcome of the Grand Jury tomorrow/Friday.
We can read a paper, email a journalist but this is the only place we could all really express how we felt.
My family, the Hanlon-Carroll family and the thousands of friends and supporters who have visited here over the past few weeks thank Bock for the opportunity and for keeping the ‘fire burning’ long after AJ’s killing had become just another used up newspaper story.
gegan
Replying to the post topic itself, for me the most ongoing traffic has come mainly via a post about the Brian Blessed appearance on HIGNFY, which noted how brilliant it was and directed people to the BBC replay of it and then the youtubery of it. And then there are those visits from those who search for ‘how to kill a man’, all over the world they come from. Those I do have to pause to wonder about.
Seems to me that with confused minds like that of jc skinner, unable to connect the dots, it’s no wonder people end up in conflict. Would he be a secret Serb I wonder, pissed that you recently mentioned the warmongering of those Serbs.
I don’t know what he is but his credibility is in tatters.
“A politically astute, media savvy anger fuelled assault on contemporary Ireland”
That’s a quote from irishblogs.info.
Googled ‘jc skinner’ and it gave a link to a blog called ’skin flicks’ which is where this was, could be him!
Oh, I’m very familiar with Skinner’s site. In fact I promoted it here once or twice, but after his recent behaviour, I’d have no respect for him.
Skinner- You’ve received the answer you demanded, and though you were loud enough yesterday and this morning, you’ve been very quiet since.
Have the decency to keep it that way.
Hi Bock. Some of us have jobs, you know.
I’m still waiting for you to tell me what DIFFERENCE you’ve made. Seriously, what is the difference you believe you’ve made? That remains a matter of unexplained mystery.
By the way, just for your own personal delectation and interest, I was at the removal of AJ in Saggart last Saturday evening.
I can promise you that there wasn’t a single mention of you or your blog or the big difference you’re making.
So please do enlighten me. I’m genuinely curious.
Even sadder than I feared. Dear Jesus.
Sorry guys. No more Skinner: complete arsehole. Gone.